Spirit of Akasha

A film to celebrate 40 Years of Morning of the Earth
World Premiere Sydney Opera House 25th January 2014

If you could string your moments of pure bliss in surfing through your entire life, like pearls on a string, then a great story would unfold and your time here would not have been wasted. It would be the story of a deep connection with the ocean forged from a lifelong commitment to an idea.

As humans, everything that we are, everything that we have done and everything that we have yet to do must first exist as an idea.

The great works of art and science and healing that have everlasting benefits for the life of humankind originate as ideas. As such, they materialise from somewhere beyond time and space. In the east, this place is known as Akasha, a universal dimension from which all ideas, all life and all creation originate.

“According to the philosophers of India, the whole universe is composed of two materials, one of which they call Akasha. It is the omnipresent, all-penetrating existence.

Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha. It is the Akasha that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solids; it is the Akasha that becomes the Sun, the Earth, the Moon, the stars, the comets; it is the Akasha that becomes the human body, the animal body, the plants, every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, everything that exists. It cannot be perceived; it is so subtle that it is beyond ordinary perception; it can only be seen when it becomes gross, has taken form.

At the beginning of creation there is only the Akasha. At the end of the cycle the solid, the liquids, and the gases all melt into the Akasha again, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of the Akasha…”

– Yogi Swami Vivekananda

The ancient Rishis of India were able to commune with this dimension through a disciplined, spiritual way of life, and through yoga.

For surfers, the spiritual practise involves the riding of waves.

A wave rises out of the ocean and, in the short span of a few moments, returns to the ocean. Each wave is a product of the ocean, just as perfume is the product of a flower: a fleeting, intoxicating, yet essential element of its existence.

In today’s world, with the advancement of technologies, the individual is increasingly becoming a conscious participant in the collective mind. As individuals, we are made up of trillions of living cells functioning in a synthesis of perfect harmony. Collectively, we are part of a larger Universe in which trillions of living organisms co-exist in perfect harmony. To ride ocean waves is to connect to the very beauty and purity of that order of things. In that moment, when we are deep inside a wave, we are experiencing a state of bliss, the very essence of a life in harmony. The purity of that divine connection contributes to the collective consciousness. Thus, the whole becomes a reflection of its individual parts, the parts a reflection of the whole. As above so below.

For a surfer, riding waves is the natural order of life. We stay connected to that which in essence we are. Life is a wave. Every cell in our body is connected to every cell in the ocean – there is no separation. Riding waves with the purity of that awareness is enough…. once we recognise that, there is nothing else - I am that and that I am. Through riding waves we are totally connected to all that exists and, from the recognition of that, all is perfect. Ultimately we realize that we are all on the one wave.

Riding waves is a doorway to the pure perfume of the cosmos. It manifests through every wave and every surfer and every thing; it’s the treasure chest of life. Our purpose here is to create heaven on earth, however we perceive that to be. Through our connection to the ocean, we allow the spirit of life to embellish us; to keep us connected to that field of everlasting beauty that creates all things, and is all things – the world of Akasha.

– Albert Falzon

Morning of the Earth

In the early 70's I made Morning of the Earth because I really wanted to make a positive film about surfing and the world. I always wanted to make a surfing film, you know, ever since I saw the early Bud Brown films in Australia that were just starting to come in from overseas. They were the first surfing films to arrive. When I saw those I was pretty inspired by what he was doing.

I was designing books at the time and I remember doing this design for the Catholic church, and I was commissioned to do it by two nuns. I remember walking along the street with them one day, and they were really lovely these women, and they said what do you really want to do with your life, what would you really like to do if you had the opportunity to do whatever you wanted to do, what would you like to do? And I said that I'd like to make a really beautiful, positive film about the world. That's what I'd like to do. And you know not long after that I was travelling up and down the coast making a surfing film and Morning Of The Earth came from it.